


Valeriya

by TassieSnapeKit



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/F, M/M, Mental Health Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-05-31 00:29:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15107966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TassieSnapeKit/pseuds/TassieSnapeKit
Summary: Story Begins: Tuesday 8 June 2010, at the end of season 5 (minus the finale) and is loosely based on “Hostage” (from season 11).This is my first work, so I'm not sure what to put in this summary and it will likely change, but for now:Emily is out for a drive, trying to clear her head, when a girl jumps out into the street. The girl takes her to a house of horrors and Emily finds the family she didn't know she needed.The story switches POV from 3rd person, to first person for the main character, an original female child. The story focuses primarily on the family unit and less on cases.There are some teasers of other fandoms with appearances of Carmilla  from Carmilla and Alexandra Udinov from Nikita. With some little allusions to some other fandoms.





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Mostly Cannon with the exceptions: Derek Morgan and Spencer Reid are mated (after Reid was kidnapped and Morgan realised just how much Reid meant to him).  
> JJ and Will broke up in “In Heat” and JJ never told him about Henry. Emily became JJ’s confidant during her pregnancy and they eventually mated. Emily is listed as Henry’s “Father” on the birth certificate.

Katrya looked around the room desperately. Alexandra and Valeriya were both super sick and she had to get help. She couldn’t let them die too. Begrudgingly she went to the red room and opened the cabinet. She needed to find something that would get through the lock holding the grates over the windows. Finally, she found a tool box in the bottom with an old hand saw. She closed the cabinet and left the room quickly. She checked on the other two girls again before perching on one of the bookshelves under the thin window. She began sawing the lock frantically. She didn’t know when he would get home, but she needed to be gone by then and find help. She broke through the lock with a feeling of disbelief. She quickly smashed the glass out of the window and jumped off the bookshelf.

  
Smoothing back Alexandra’s long curly hair from her sweaty forehead, she gently placed a kiss and promised, “I’ll come back. I’ve got to go and get you help.” Katrya wiped a tear and turned to the little girl tied down on the other cot. “I promise, I’ll be right back, you stay here, promise! You can’t go see them yet. It’s not your time yet. I love you.” The girl was either asleep or passed out, she couldn’t tell anymore. They were both so sick. She had to leave now. With one last look she slid out of the window and took off into the night, running into the forest.

  
Her legs and lungs were burning and her feet were all cut up from running barefoot, but she couldn’t stop, she had to find them help. She had been running for at least three miles, maybe four. She saw a road up ahead and she dashed toward it. She saw the pin prick of headlights coming down the road. She waited until she could tell how big it was, it wasn’t the van. She took a deep breath and ran into the street.

* * *

 

Emily had had a terrible dinner with her mother. She had agreed to have dinner with her, since her mother was leaving on assignment in a couple of weeks and she was never sure when they were going to be on a case. The Ambassador was heading back to Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic. Emily was telling her about the house search. She and JJ wanted to move out of a townhouse on a busy street and find a house outside of the District. The Ambassador was tight lipped about it and Emily knew that JJ and Henry were the source of her discomfort. Her mother just couldn’t see that JJ and Henry were her life now. She loved them with all her heart and was grateful everyday to have found them. But her mother just couldn’t get past it. She still thought that Emily should settle down with a man and have her own children, not be a father on a baby’s birth certificate that she didn’t create. But Henry was hers as much as he was JJ’s. Emily knew her mother would never see it her way, but still she had to try to make her mother understand. It didn’t go well and both women left the dinner inwardly seething, neither woman gave any emotion away to other diners, but they had lived with each other and knew just how angry the other was. Emily called JJ from the car, “Hey J.J. dinner with my mother went about as well as expected. I’m going to go for a drive to cool off, don’t wait up for me. Can I tell Henry goodnight?” Emily took deep breaths.

  
“Hi Mama, are you goodnight?” Henry’s young, tired voice asked. Just hearing him left Emily in awe of how much she could love someone.

  
“Yes little man, goodnight, sleep tight. I’ll see you in the morning and I’ll see the moon tonight.” Emily told him.

  
“I’ll see you in the mornin’ Mama and I’ll see the moon t’night” his sweet little voice echoed back.

  
JJ came back on the phone, “I love you Em. Don’t let your mother get to you. Be safe on your drive and come home to us soon.”

  
“I love you too JJ. I love you and Henry so much. I just wish my mother would see how happy we are.” Emily whispered back.

  
“Alright, go on your drive. Clear your head. And come on home.” JJ hung up the phone.

  
Emily looked at the phone in her hand. She put it in the center console and drove out into the night. She drove down the I-95 for an hour and when she turned off onto Joplin Rd, right by Prince William Forest Park. JJ was afraid of the woods, but Emily loved to drive through them. It helped to clear her mind and the Prince William Forest Park was a favourite, ever since her days at the Academy. Emily almost wasn’t paying attention when a girl dashed out in the middle of the road and just stood there. Emily hit the brakes. She took the girl in. She was in a dirty old night gown, her hair was plastered to her face. She looked like hell, she was skinny and dirty, and flushed with exertion. The girl was frantic and wild eyed. Emily got out of the car when the girl started towards her.

  
The girl ran up to her tugging on her arm, rambling at her in Russian. “Hey, hey, slow down what’s going on. How can I help you?”

  
The girl didn’t stop she was frantic. Emily paid more attention, trying to remember the Russian she had learnt as a girl. She was pleading with her, “Pozhaluysta pozhaluysta! Nam nuzhna pomoshch'! Moi sestry, nam nuzhna pomoshch'. Prezhde chem on vernetsya. My dolzhny pomoch' im, pozhaluysta!” (Please please! We need some help! My sisters, we need help. Before he returns. We must help them, please!)

  
“Okay okay, we’ll get them help. What is your name” Emily asked her in broken Russian.

  
The girl quieted at that and took a deep breath, Emily noted that she was a young Alpha. She began in english, “I’m sorry I forgot to use english. My name is Katrya, please we have to go get them I don’t know when he’ll be back!” she said in distress.

  
“Okay, I’m from the FBI, the police.” she clarified at the girls blank look. “I’ll call my team and they will come and help too. What kind of help do your sisters need?” Emily questioned.  
“They are very sick they need doctors, please I don’t know how long they have. I can’t lose them too!”

  
“Where are they, can you tell me? So I can tell the help where to go?”

  
“I don’t know, I don’t know. This is the first time I’ve been outside and I came through the forest so he wouldn’t see me going to get help. I can take you through the forest though.” Katrya told her, worriedly.

  
Emily pulled out her phone and called Hotch, “Hey Hotch, I’m not sure what is going on yet, but I’ve got a young girl who jumped out onto the road in nothing but a nightgown. She is rambling about needing doctors for her sisters and keeps saying “we need to get them before he gets back”. She says her name is Katrya and she’s never been outside before and ran through the forest to get help so he wouldn’t see her. I’m out on Joplin Rd. by Prince William. I’m going to go with her, can you get everyone together and head this way? I’ll call you back when I know where we are.” Hotch agreed and Emily snapped the phone shut. “Alright, I’m going to pull my car out of the road and then I’ll follow you.” the girl was getting more antsy the longer she took. “Alright, let’s go.”

  
The girl took off back through the trees, sprinting faster than Emily was expecting and she hurried to keep up. She had no idea how the girl knew where she was going, especially in the dark like this. They ran for miles and the longer they ran, the longer the list of questions Emily had got. Suddenly, Katrya stopped. Emily looked around. They were standing at the edge of the woods. In front of them was a cabin with no lights on except for two thin windows with dim light spilling out near the ground. Emily assumed it was the basement. A van rumbled down the gravel drive. She found the house numbers. The driveway must have been a private road this far out, but the number of the house would be at the head. The van stopped and a tall, fit man got out. He took out a couple of bags of groceries and went inside. Emily looked at the girl next to her, but all she saw was the girl slipping in through one of the basement windows.

  
“Shit!” Emily whispered. She called 911 and gave them the directions and then called Hotch. “Emily, wait for backup. We’ll be there soon.”

  
“I’m sorry Hotch, I can’t there are young girls in there with him and I can’t let him get back to them. He’ll know the girl escaped and I can’t let him hurt her.”

  
Hotch breathed out, “Do what you think is right Emily.”

  
She pulled out her firearm and ran up the front porch to the door, “Open up! This is the FBI!” Unsurprisingly the door didn’t open, and in a Morgan-esque fashion she kicked the door in. She cleared the first two rooms and she found a door with a lock on the outside, most likely to the basement where the girls were. She hesitated for a moment, but the lock was locked and there was no way he could be down there and the door still be locked from the outside. She heard the back door bang shut. “Shit!” She turned around and went back to the front porch, by the time she got there, the van was turning down the drive and out of her sight. “Shit!” she repeated.

  
The cops and ambulance were still going to be at least 15 minutes, way out here and down a private drive. Hotch would hopefully be closer but she didn’t know how close. She went back inside. She went back to the door, “Katrya, it’s Emily. Are you okay down there?”

  
She heard feet running up stairs, “yes, please hurry they are worse!”

  
“Okay, I’m going to find the keys and I’ll get you out of there.” Emily turned and did just that. The keys weren’t hard to find, it was hanging from a hook in the kitchen. She quickly undid the lock, “Katrya, I’m coming downstairs okay? Help is on the way.” Emily made it down the stairs. Katrya was crouched in between to cots. On one cot was an omega girl that looked about the same age as Katrya, sweaty and clearly feverish with a small puddle of vomit on the side of the cot. Katrya was smoothing her hair down and singing to her, Once upon a December. Emily was surprised, the girl was extremely talented.

  
On the other cot was a little girl, her hands tied to a headboard, knees bent under her chest and tied that way. Emily couldn’t see the girl’s face the way she was tied down, her long, curly, red hair covering her, but she could see the girls ankles and the soles of her feet, they were cut and were oozing pus. Emily came into the room and started to untie the little girl, who was passed out or sleeping. Emily was surprised to smell that the girl had already presented as an omega, but then she supposed that would make sense if she lived the way Emily thought the girls had.

  
Katrya told her, “If she wakes up and opens her eyes don’t say anything.”

  
Emily nodded and finished untying the little girl, and undoing the little locks keeping her that way. “What are their names and how old are you all?” Emily asked.

  
She went to roll the little girl onto her back when Katrya stopped her, “Don’t, it will hurt her more. This is Valeriya and she is almost 8, at the end of October. This is Alexandra, she is 15 and I will be 16 in a little over a week.”

  
“Do you know what is wrong with Alexandra, why she is so sick?” Emily asked. At that moment Valeriya’s eyes fluttered open and then went wide with shock and fright. Emily knew what Katrya meant about not saying anything about the girls eyes. The left eye was emerald green and the right a bright blue, she was beautiful.

 

* * *

 

I’m in so much pain its hard to think. I swallow and can feel blood in my throat, I twitch my feet and wince when I feel them oozing. I move and realise I’m no longer tied in position. I open my eyes a little and see an unfamiliar blurry figure in the room. I try to push myself up, but I’m weak and I find Katrya’s eyes, asking with my eyes who this person is and if she is safe.  
Katrya tells me soothingly, “This is Emily, she is helping us and she has more help coming for you and Alexandra. You can trust her.”

  
Katrya tells the woman, Emily, “I don’t know he gives her pills when she is “good” for him and I think he gave her too much!” I assume that the woman had asked what was wrong with Alexandra.

  
I sniff the air gently, trying to smell if the woman was safe. I could smell that she was a beta, but more than that she smelled safe, her sent reminding me of Mama.

  
My arms finally give out as I was trying to sit up, she smells so safe and I want to be held like Mama used to hold me, Katrya and Alexandra cuddle me but its not the same as Mama.  
I grabby hands at Emily, hoping she understands what I want, “You want me to hold you?” I nod shyly at her, hoping she doesn’t reject me. I look at Katrya, checking to see if she thinks it is safe and she nods. Emily moves to sit on my cot and opens her arms. I take a moment trying to figure out how to move without too much pain and without hurting my feet anymore. I crawl towards Emily and move to sit on her lap, my legs hanging off the side of the bed, where there was no pressure on them. I lean in and rest my head in the crook of her neck, gently breathing in her scent. She smells like warmth. I don’t have any frame of reference to describe her scent as anything else, I’ve only ever smelled my family and Daddy. I hate him, he makes me hurt. Emily’s hair is loose, hanging over her shoulders and I take a piece of it and twirl it around my fingers, soothing myself. I hope she doesn’t mind. The woman looks so much like Katrya, at first I thought I was seeing an older her. They both have the same pale skin, dark brown almost black hair and eyes.

  
Emily moves to wrap her arms around me and I want her to, like Mama used to hold me, but when her arm brushes against my back I can’t hold back the hiss I let out at the pain. She immediately pulled her. Katrya looked at me and asked, “Ty pozvolish' yey vzglyanut' na tvoyu spinu?” (Will you let her look at your back?) I glance back up at Emily who has a look of concern on her face. I nod and move my long, curly, dark red hair over my shoulder and begin unbuttoning my nightie.

  
When Emily sees my back, she gasps. I know it must look ugly, the burns covering my back. Daddy gave me angel wings because he said I was an angel that the God gave to the Devil for him because I was evil and he could cure me. He said that my eyes proved I was evil. But Mama told me that Lucifer stole me from heaven. Mama said God gave me eyes to remind them that there was still life outside, that there were still blue skies and green grass and to not give up. I looked back at Katrya and she was pulling back both her and Alexandra’s nighties too, showing her leopard print and Alexandra’s scales.

  
Emily breathes out heavily and then seems to remember something. “I’ve seen this twice before. A little girl with tiger stripes and a young woman with butterfly wings. We tried to find the guy, but there was never any evidence.”

  
“The little one was my twin, Ksenya and the other Elenya, Valeriya’s mother. He killed her because she gave birth to a dead boy.” Katrya tells Emily.

  
We hear the gravel crunching and I tighten my grip on Emily and whimper, he was back! “Shhhh, look outside, see the flashing lights? That means it is help, so we can get you away from here and go see doctors.” Emily tells, whisking my fear aside.

  
We hear knocking coming from upstairs and someone yelling if anyone was here. Emily calls up, “Yes, we are down here, we need a stretcher!” A man comes down the stairs in a uniform and looks at us. My eyes flash and I bare my teeth, angrily warning him away. Emily runs her hand through my hair gently, “He’s here to help, it’s okay, I’ll stay here with you.” I turn my face into Emily’s shoulder, I don’t like staring and I don’t wanna see him, and I know my eyes are funny. The man seems to get the hint and tells Emily he’s going upstairs to get the stretcher.

  
Katrya is standing protectively over Alexandra, I know she won’t let anyone hurt her. They’re gonna be mates, but they couldn’t before, ‘cause Daddy woulda killed ‘em. Katrya’s a strong, good Alpha, she always protected us as much as she could. And she always made sure Alexandra eats, ‘cause sometimes she won’t and Katrya tells her how good she is to eat. She tells me I’m good when I learn new things and read out loud and when we sing together. It’s a good feeling, not like when Daddy says we’re good, that feels like yuck rolling over me, makes me feel sick.

  
Two new women come down the stairs carrying the stretcher. Katrya helps move Alexandra onto the stretcher and follows them up the stairs. Emily picks me up and carrys me after them. When we reach the top of the stairs, I peek out, curious to see what the rest of the house looks like, I’ve never seen it before. It’s not like I expected. I mean it is very organised, but nothing seems like it’s really been used. Except for his tool box and the groceries on the table, it’s like he just left all of a sudden. I wonder exactly how Emily got here, I missed it when I was passed out. We go outside and it’s hot. I see a big car, it’s an ambulance, we read a story that had one in it once. It’s bigger than I thought it would be, but I am really little, so everything is.

  
They put Alexandra in the ambulance and then Katrya gets in and finally Emily gets in with me. She sits me in her lap. They close the doors and they start driving, it feels weird, like bumpy rocking. Emily opens something small and pushes some buttons then holds it up to her ear, I figure out that it is a phone. Emily begins speaking to someone, “Hey Hotch, I have the girls with me in an ambulance, we are heading to the Sentara Hospital in Woodbridge. He never came back to the house while we were there but he might head back. Can you do me a favour and see what medications you can find, one of the other girls has overdosed. How close are you guys to the house?”

  
I can kind of hear the other end of the conversation, my head is still tucked into her neck. I hear a man, “We are about 8 minutes out. I’ll have Reid and JJ meet you all at the hospital. Morgan, Rossi, and I will go to the house and see what we can find out. Do you know the unsubs name?”

  
Emily looks to Katrya, “Do you know the man’s name?”

  
Katrya replies, “We had to call him Daddy, but I heard someone call him Amsel once.”

  
“Did you hear that Hotch?”

  
“Yes, I’ll tell Garcia and see what she can find. You stay with the girls and find out what you can.”

“Will do.” Emily said and snapped the phone shut.

The woman looking at Alexandra asks Emily, “What is her name, how old is she, and do you know what she was on? This looks like a drug overdose.”

Katrya answers, “Her name is Alexandra, she is 15 and some kind of pain numbing something, something really strong, but I don’t know what.”

“Well I’ve started her on fluids and her pulse and breathing seem to be alright. Can I look at your feet?” She is looking at me and I don’t wanna look at her ‘cause she’ll stare at me. I don’t want her to touch, it hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts.

Emily coaxes me, “what if she doesn’t touch you and I lift your feet to show her? Just so she can help. I promise I’ll be really gentle.” I peek back up at her, wind her hair around my fingers and finally nod.

Very gently she moves me so that she can hold my feet up to the woman, my feet are still oozing. “Those are pretty deep. They will definitely need to be drained and they will need stitches. We’ll have to see what the doctor says she might need surgery to the soles of her feet. She will certainly need surgery for her achilles. Have any of them had a tetanus shot? If not they will order one.” Emily goes to turn me so the woman can see my back when we pull up to a really big building all light up. I think that it is the hospital. “Alright, get ready to get out so we can unload Alexandra and get her right in.” Emily nods and shifts me onto her hip. I nuzzle back in when the door opens and we get out. Katrya follows as they unload Alexandra and holds her hand as they rush her into the hospital. Emily follows. We walk in and they quickly usher us through. We get into an empty room with two beds and space for a third, where they roll the bed they transferred Alexandra on to.

As most of them are clearing out a lady in a white lab coat comes in and introduces herself as Doctor Samaritan. As she is checking over Alexandra, Katrya hovering nervously, Alexandra begins to shake and froth. Everything goes crazy, the doctor yells “she’s seizing!” and suddenly more people rush into the room. We’re pushed to the side and I can’t see what’s happening. They do something and it seems to stop.

  
Emily’s phone rings, “We’re at the house and we found a bottle of Dilaudid, that’s what she’s overdosing on. We’re going to check the rest of the house out, it doesn’t seem like he came back.”


	2. Foundlings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team takes a look at how the girls have been living. We get a peek into the damage that the Unsub has left in Valeriya's mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is looking into how the world is being perceived by an extremely abused child. Therefore, there are going to be a lot of thoughts from a young child's perspective, which may not always make sense. In combination with the abuse, there are some serious psychological issues and warped world-views.

Morgan hangs up the phone and hands the bottle to a CSI. He finishes looking around the kitchen, finding some torture porn and a tool box, he then heads into the man’s bedroom to meet up with Rossi. He tells Rossi what he found and helps Rossi profile the room. Everything was just so, the bed folded, the clothes hung, the shoes aligned. “This guy needs absolute control over everything.”

  
“It makes sense for a sadist. I think we’ve seen enough of up here. Let’s head down to the basement. I’m a little afraid of what we’ll find down there.” Rossi comments. The two men go down to the basement and begin looking around. “Looks like they are well read at least. It seems like he was homeschooling them. I wonder what that’s all about, it seems odd for a sadist.” The room had half bookshelves on all of the walls of the room, except for the far wall, which was covered by a curtain. The shelves were full of books, some textbooks, but mostly classic books: Shakespeare, Dickens, the great Russian authors, Poe, Vonnegut, the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, Lovecraft. It looked like Russian books were favourites, particularly Dostoyevsky. There are three old cots with various stains on them and ratty blankets.

  
“Someone’s a particularly talented artist. Look at all these pictures, five girls are drawn repeatedly, aging over time, and a little boy, as an angel. I’m going to guess these are our vics. Although Emily only mentioned finding three girls. And there is one big picture, but it’s torn and crumpled, and it’s stiff, like the girl was angry when she drew it. I don’t think the vics wanted it there. A little girl angel with a snake curled around her shoulders, a tiger and a leopard curled at her feet and a butterfly on her head.” Morgan comments. Morgan studies the rest of the drawings, mostly landscapes, but there are other animals though drawn together and repeatedly, probably their favourites, he muses. There’s a wolf, a panther, a fox, a lynx, a bunny, and an otter. He moves on, “Most of the furniture in this room looks handmade, and with the multiple tool boxes upstairs, I assume it is his work. Could be what the guy does for a living, a handy man or a carpenter of some kind.”

  
Rossi is moving around the room, making his own notes. The two men finally come to the curtain covering the far wall. They pull it back and suck in a deep breath. There is a St. Andrew’s cross with lots of blood on it, restraints at multiple points, for children. There is a cabinet on the one wall and a bathroom set up on the other. They approach the cabinet and pull open the doors. There are paddles and whips, as expected, another tool box, slightly open, but there is a piece of equipment that was not expected and seems to have been used most often. “Do you know what that is?” Rossi asks. Morgan looks over and shakes his head in denial.

  
A CSI looks over, “That is a medical cauterizer. But it doesn’t make sense for him to stop their bleeding if he’s in to torture like you guys say. It would causes some pretty gnarly scars though.”

  
“This guy, fuck!,” Morgan swears. “Rossi this is the guy we couldn’t find. That drawing makes more sense now. This was the first case Garcia worked that we couldn’t find the guy. She was heartbroken. In ‘04 there was a kid, about 9 or 10, she had recently presented as an omega, we profiled it as a result of sexual abuse. There was never any missings filed that fit her description. We were called in because they assumed the guy was serial and we agreed, his MO was too specific. She had tiger stripes branded on her back, her entire back and extreme sustained physical abuse. But we never found any evidence. Then in ‘06 right after Emily joined us, same guy, never any evidence, an omega woman around 20, back covered in butterfly wing brands, forehead too. She had just given birth, the baby boy was found with her. Doc determined she was beaten to death within 2 hours of having given birth and the child was a stillborn. I knew those faces looked familiar. Damn it!” he growls and punches the wall.

  
“Call Garcia, maybe she can track it through a serial number, might be able to get our guy that way.” Rossi tells Morgan, wanting to get him calmer.

  
Morgan dials Garcia, “Hey baby girl. I got something I want to know if we can track.”

  
“Give it to me.”

  
“We found a medical cauterizer down here. Think it has a serial number?”

  
“Maybe, let me check. It should be trackable if its for medical use. Find one and send it to me. I’ll get you the knowledge you seek. Finder of all things knowable out.” Garcia ends the call.

  
Morgan looks the machine over and locates the number on the bottom of it. He types it into his phone and sends it to Garcia. He looks the room over one more time. “Alright, let’s get out of here Rossi, we’ve got all we’re gonna get from here. Let’s meet everyone at the hospital and wait for Garcia to work her magic, hopefully she can find something." Rossi nods his assent and they get in the car and drive over to the hospital. Morgan sees a Toys ‘R’ Us across the street from the hospital and makes a snap decision.

  
“What are we doing, the hospital is the other way.” Rossi points out.

  
“I know but it sounds like there is at least one little girl and she has nothing. I noticed the drawings on the walls and I thought we could stop in quickly and pick up some of the stuffed animals and some blankets”

“Ah,” Rossi says. “I’m game.”

Morgan parks and the two men go into the store. They quickly locate the stuffed animals. Morgan looks for some really soft ones and pulls them off the shelf. He puts a panther, a fox, a lynx, an otter, a wolf, and a bunny in the basket, just like from the drawings. They turn down another aisle and pick up three very soft blankets. They head to the check out. “Got a little one in the hospital, huh,” the cashier says. “We get people in here all the time. I hope your little one gets better soon.” She sends them off with a warm smile. They get in the car and go to the hospital.

* * *

 

Katrya is anxiously checking Alexandra over while the doctors are talking. They come back in the room. “We want to give Alexandra a full MRI, to make sure nothing in her brain is out of place, but also, due to the long history of extreme physical abuse, it will show us any and all injuries that might need to be addressed. We would like to do the same for the two of you, but we could also just do full body x- rays. At the very least we would like to do an MRI of Valeriya’s lower legs and an x-ray.” The doctor seems unsure as to whom she should be addressing, Emily or Katrya. Emily looks to Katrya for her answer.

  
“Explain what these tests do and their potential risks. I will make my decision then.” Katrya tells Emily, though it is the doctor that responds. She rattles off a long list of information, but I tune it out in favour of looking around. Everything is so bright and white and it smells harsh. Like when Daddy scrubbed me down with bleach that one time.

  
There are so many people too. Some, like the lady at the desk are wearing jim jams. It’s funny, they don’t have to, but they do and I have to and hate it. Others seem to be waiting there for other people and they are mostly all sad or crying. Some seem to be angry though. And then there are the doctors. They all look so stern and they walk quickly like they always have somewhere special to be. It makes their white coats flap.

  
I go back to taking in Emily. I had begun to forget what Mama was like. Katrya and Alexandra were good, but they were sisters, not Mamas. But Emily is. I can smell a baby on her. She is wearing a shirt that is so soft, a turtle neck, forest green. I notice that I’ve been rubbing my cheek on it, it feels so nice. I feel safe in her arms. I lean even further in, soaking the feeling in while I can. I know I don’t get good things. I’ll make something bad happen and then Emily will hate me or she’ll die. I shouldn’t even take this, but I want it so much. She is stroking my hair like Mama used to and softly humming, I don’t think she knows she is though.

  
The doctor has stopped talking. “Alright. We will do the MRI’s. We need to know what needs to be fixed. But you will tell me the results.” Katrya is very firm, she knows that they might not take her seriously because she is young, out here.

  
Emily asks Katrya the question I have been worried about. She will know how bad I am now and I’ll be alone again. “Can she speak?”

  
Katrya tells them, “She can, but not right now. She tore her throat open screaming last night, she was spitting blood out.” I clutch onto Emily and then let go, bracing myself to be pushed away. Now she knows I can’t be good and it was all my fault about Alexandra. She said she had a headache from all my screaming and he gave her more pills than normal and now she almost died. It would be my fault if she died, just like Mama and Selafiil were my fault. I hold my breath. I can’t take the silence, there is no talking anymore. If I hold my breath long enough, then I go quiet and I won’t cause any trouble. I just have to go there and it won’t hurt.

  
Someone is jostling me, but I know if i just stay limp they will go away. Katrya comes behind me and yanks my hair back. She makes me look her in the eyes, “Breathe. NOW.” She says it in her alpha voice and I have to. “Good girl.” she praises me. “You can’t do that now. No holding your breath. I mean it.” She is still holding my hair and making me look at her. My eyes fill with tears and I nod. She lets go of my hair and pets my face. “I love you, Kit. They aren’t going to be mad about your voice.” Katrya always knows.

  
She and Alexandra are always trying to tell me that things aren’t my fault, but I know the truth. Daddy makes sure I know what is my fault and what is good and bad. He says I have to know to get the devil out. Daddy says when my eyes are the same colour, then I will be good enough to not need anymore feathers. I won’t have to pay for them being dead and I’ll get to go visit them.

  
I bury my face in Emily’s neck again, tears sliding hotly down my face. She is shushing me and I want it so much. I want to have a Mama again. I know I shouldn’t, that I’m being selfish. Katrya always told me if we got out that I could scent her. That I would always be protected by her until I found a good mate. But Emily is right here and she’s protecting me. She makes me feel safe in a way that Katrya doesn’t. I know I shouldn’t but I want it so bad and I’m doing it before I can really stop myself.

* * *

 

Emily is listening to the doctor telling Katrya about the tests they want to do. She is young, but she is clearly determined to be the best alpha she can be to protect this family that she has. It is clear that she and Alexandra are in the beginning stages of a bond. While she is attentive to Valeriya, she is almost overbearing in her defense of Alexandra. Emily becomes aware that she is subtly rocking and humming to Valeriya. Emily is the child advocate on the BAU team and as such she is often the one to interview the children. After the first few cases she was able to keep her feelings at a distance and professional. But these girls, maybe it was because they found her, it wasn’t work, maybe it was how similar Katrya looked to her and how Valeriya was clinging to her like she was the only safe place in the world, but she couldn’t help but want to bring them home. She didn’t even know if they had somewhere to go and she didn’t know how she was going to feel when the time came for them to go, but she wanted them to come home with her.

  
Suddenly it dawns on her that she hasn’t heard the little girl speak at all, just sharp inhales and hisses. She wouldn’t be surprised if the man had done something so she couldn’t talk, like cutting out her tongue. It could just be from the stress of the situation though. Clearly the girl wasn’t ready to speak so she directed her question to Katrya. “Can she speak?” Katrya looks at Emily sharply. She knows where this will end up.

  
“She can, but not right now. She tore her throat open screaming last night, she was spitting blood out.” Katrya is watching her closely and she isn’t sure why when she feels Valeriya clutch her tightly and then go completely limp. Emily shakes the girl gently, “Valeriya, are you alright?” She gets no answer and Katrya comes and stands next to her.

  
Emily looks on in shock as Katrya grabs a fist full of the little girls hair and yanks sharply back, exposing her pale, slender throat. She forces the little girl to look her in the eyes .“Breathe. NOW.” she commands in an alpha voice. The little girl holds the eye contact and takes a breath in. “Good girl.” Katrya praises her. “You can’t do that now. No holding your breath. I mean it.” Valeriya is looking at her as if held by a spell. Emily watches as her unique gemstone like eyes fill with tears and she nods at the young alpha. “I love you, Kit. They aren’t going to be mad about your voice.” She releases the girls red hair and gently runs her hand down the little cheek.

  
Emily begins rocking again as the small girl pushes her face back into her neck and she feels hot tears hit her skin. Her heart breaks, thinking about what Valeriya must believe about herself to think that making herself pass out is the best response to that knowledge. She wants even more now to bring the little girl home. She knows from Katrya that Valeriya was born in that room and that other than the two older girls, she has no one else in the world. Emily can’t even begin to imagine what the three girls will have to do to adjust to the new world, either with family who hasn’t seen them in at least nine years or in the foster system. She can’t imagine what the system would be able to do to help them adjust. As she is thinking about how much she wants to become these girls family, maybe not mother, but at least family, she feels sharp little teeth digging into her neck, piercing the skin and making her bleed.

  
It takes her a moment to understand what is happening. Valeriya had just scented her. Emily had assumed that she would scent Katrya, as the only non- omega person she knew in any kind of familial capacity. When an omega presents, unless they already have a mate, they must scent someone to protect them. Usually, this is the omega’s parent or an older sibling, until the child had a mate of their own to care for them. Any bond had to be initiated by an omega and accepted by the other party. It was the one protection an omega had, and the only reason the unsub had not mated with the girls. Emily was in shock. She did want this, she had since she gathered the little girl in her arms just under two hours ago, but she hadn’t even talked to JJ about the girls. However, Emily knew that in the state the girl was in the longer she did not respond, the more critical the girls already fragile young mind would be.

  
Emily looked at Katrya. The young woman looked at her and after a few moments of a truly soul searching look, she nodded at Emily, giving her blessing. Emily knew what this might mean that depending on the girls situation. It could mean that the girls were torn apart. The older girls had each other and their bond, but there was nothing to keep the system from taking Valeriya away from them. Katrya understood this and knew that Emily would protect her as if she were her own. Emily looks down and meets the uneven gaze trained on her.

* * *

 

I realize what I have done the moment Emily’s blood hits my tongue. I whimper. I’m so bad. So bad. Bad, bad, bad. Emily is going to leave and I’ll be all alone. There is no reason for Katrya and Alexandra to stay either, and now this is a betrayal, they won’t want me after this. If this is all the good I’m going to get, I want to take it in for as long as I can. I look up at Emily and try to memorize her face. She is looking intently at Katrya.

They look so similar. Emily’s hair is so dark brown it might as well be black. Her eyes are the colour of dark chocolate, just like Katrya’s. They have the same pale white skin, long straight noses, high cheekbones. Big smiles that show lots of teeth, pink lips. They are both so pretty, not like ugly, evil me.

  
Emily looks down at me and I brace myself for her rejection, instead she rubs her nose against mine. She reaches down to her wrist and produces her hair tie. She takes my wrist and wraps her hair band around it twice. Accepting my scenting.

  
I don’t know what to do. I wanted this, but I don’t get good things. I can’t, I can’t. I feel myself float away. I watch as Emily says something, but I’m not there anymore. Emily is beginning to panic. I want to nuzzle close to her and breathe her scent in, but I don’t want to get my evil on her. Emily’s eyes find Katrya. They talk but I focus on not getting my evil on her. I’m looking out at the rest of the hospital and there are three new people that enter. They talk to the woman in jim jams and head to our room. I would worry, but I know I’m already gone, all I have to do is keep my evil inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If the last bit has left you confused, Valeriya has entered a dissociative state. It will be covered more in following chapters from the teams, much more well informed, perspective. It is incredibly difficult to describe a dissociative state to someone else, let alone a young child trying to explain it to herself.  
> On another note, this is my first time writing something A/B/O and if there is confusion around something, let me know in the comments. I will either explain it, or let you know that the explanation is coming later. If there is anything else that needs clarification, I will address that too.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone is wondering about what the characters look like my casting is:  
> Elenya- Kristen Stewart  
> Ksenya- Ksenia Solo  
> Katrya- Natasha Negovanlis  
> Alexandra- Lyndsy Fonseca  
> Valeriya- Mackenzie Foy  
> And the BAU team as themselves.  
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RNsnmxxtN3hJNaSsBgs_0FYxdKVzILmdRgkMYKGtU1M/edit?usp=sharing


End file.
